Success for the Dr. Tom Baker Memorial Talent Showcase

This past Monday, I was honored to the host of the Comedy Category in the Dr. Tom Baker Memorial Talent Showcase for Charity as well as a Co-Chair for the event. I am happy to the event was a success. There were 3 categories: Spoken Word, Comedy and Music. There a total of 19 contestants and they all rocked the house.  The event also had some professional and local celebrity judges for each category (whom we’d like to send a big thanks to). These judges were: Jeff Tobe, Mike Rethage, Aaron Klieber, Sean Collier, Kelly Kochamba and Kraig Mahokus

The first category was Spoken word, which was hosted by Tom Baker. There were a total of 7 speakers that talked about various topics. This was interesting for me to see, only because the only form of speaking that I’m really used to seeing on stage is Stand-Up. This went really well, and had the audience’s attention with a variety of topics from Punching Horses to Fear to Money! Congrats to winners of this category: Julie Ann Sullivan (Judges Choice) and Scott Turransky (People’s Choice).

Second on the list was Comedy, which was hosted by yours truly. The show had 7 great Comedians that delivered 5 minutes of their best material. This went really well, as all the Comedians had great tight sets that had the crowd rolling in laughter! This was a great showcase of the talent you can see around the city at various open mics and shows. Congrats to the winners of this category: Tim Ross (Judges Choice) and Zach Funk & Alex Stypula (People’s Choice).

The final category was Music, which was hosted Mike Rethage. This category had 4 very talented musical acts, including a good friend of mine Derek Krystek. Derek and I go way back. He’s runs a web music series called Take Away Tuesdays, produces his own solo music and is the drummer of SleepyV. He sang an original song called Space Dust, about our friend Bobby who passed away a little over 2 years ago. The song was amazing and hit home for me! The other performers were fantastic as well, playing covers, mash ups and some original tunes. Congrats to winners of this category: Kat Ammon (Judges Choice) and Lindsay Mikash (People’s Choice).

This was an incredible honor to be a part of and a big thanks to everyone who came out and participated! Let s do it again next year!